Civilians in the Path of War

Civilians in the Path of War

Author: Mark Grimsley

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2002-01-01

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 9780803221826

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Antologi. Bogens 9 historikere har gennemgået mere end 2.500 års befolkningskonflikter og deres forskellige indflydelse på det civile samfund. Hvert behandlet afsnit undersøger ikke alene, hvad de militære styrker gjorde ved civilbefolkningen i operationsområdet, men hvorfor de gjorde det og hvorledes de retfærdiggjorde deres handlinger.


Targeting Civilians in War

Targeting Civilians in War

Author: Alexander B. Downes

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2011-05-15

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 0801457297

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Accidental harm to civilians in warfare often becomes an occasion for public outrage, from citizens of both the victimized and the victimizing nation. In this vitally important book on a topic of acute concern for anyone interested in military strategy, international security, or human rights, Alexander B. Downes reminds readers that democratic and authoritarian governments alike will sometimes deliberately kill large numbers of civilians as a matter of military strategy. What leads governments to make such a choice? Downes examines several historical cases: British counterinsurgency tactics during the Boer War, the starvation blockade used by the Allies against Germany in World War I, Axis and Allied bombing campaigns in World War II, and ethnic cleansing in the Palestine War. He concludes that governments decide to target civilian populations for two main reasons—desperation to reduce their own military casualties or avert defeat, or a desire to seize and annex enemy territory. When a state's military fortunes take a turn for the worse, he finds, civilians are more likely to be declared legitimate targets to coerce the enemy state to give up. When territorial conquest and annexation are the aims of warfare, the population of the disputed land is viewed as a threat and the aggressor state may target those civilians to remove them. Democracies historically have proven especially likely to target civilians in desperate circumstances. In Targeting Civilians in War, Downes explores several major recent conflicts, including the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Civilian casualties occurred in each campaign, but they were not the aim of military action. In these cases, Downes maintains, the achievement of quick and decisive victories against overmatched foes allowed democracies to win without abandoning their normative beliefs by intentionally targeting civilians. Whether such "restraint" can be guaranteed in future conflicts against more powerful adversaries is, however, uncertain. During times of war, democratic societies suffer tension between norms of humane conduct and pressures to win at the lowest possible costs. The painful lesson of Targeting Civilians in War is that when these two concerns clash, the latter usually prevails.


Civilians and Warfare in World History

Civilians and Warfare in World History

Author: Nicola Foote

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-08-23

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 1351714562

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book explores the role played by civilians in shaping the outcomes of military combat across time and place. This volume explores the contributions civilians have made to warfare in case studies that range from ancient Europe to contemporary Africa and Latin America. Building on philosophical and legal scholarship, it explores the blurred boundary between combatant and civilian in different historical contexts and examines how the absence of clear demarcations shapes civilian strategic positioning and impacts civilian vulnerability to military targeting and massacre. The book argues that engagement with the blurred boundaries between combatant and non-combatant both advance the key analytical questions that underpin the historical literature on civilians and underline the centrality of civilians to a full understanding of warfare. The volume provides new insight into why civilian death and suffering has been so common, despite widespread beliefs embedded in legal and military codes across time and place that killing civilians is wrong. Ultimately, the case studies in the book show that civilians, while always victims of war, were nevertheless often able to become empowered agents in defending their own lives, and impacting the outcomes of wars. By highlighting civilian military agency and broadening the sense of which actors affect strategic outcomes, the book also contributes to a richer understanding of war itself. This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, international history, international relations and war and conflict studies.


Civilians in War

Civilians in War

Author: International Peace Academy

Publisher: Lynne Rienner Publishers

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 9781555879655

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

While recognizing the changing face of war casualties (the civilian casualty rate has escalated from five percent in World War I to up to 90 percent in recent conflicts), the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians has not been able to reverse that trend. In this project of the International Peace Academy, with which the editor is affiliated, a dozen essays endeavor to expand the tools available to protect civilians in times of war. They address the themes of the evolving norms of international humanitarian law, inducing compliance, enforcing compliance, and reevaluating protection by reviewing traditional assumptions and new needs to deal at the local level with unconventional belligerents like guerillas. c. Book News Inc.


The Hard Hand of War

The Hard Hand of War

Author: Mark Grimsley

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780521599412

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume explores the Union army's treatment of Southerners during the Civil War, emphasising the survival of political logic and control.


In the School of War

In the School of War

Author: Roger J. Spiller

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2010-06-01

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 0803228163

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Fort Leavenworth, where Roger J. Spiller taught the army?s finest for twenty-five years, is indeed a ?school of war.? There, among military professionals who had experienced war firsthand, Spiller honed his remarkable skills as an analyst and historian, scholar and teacher?skills that have made him one of the best-known and respected military historians of our day. This volume brings together Spiller?s original and thought-provoking explorations of wars big and small and armies glorified and ignored. For each of these essays?whether on urban warfare or the Vietnam syndrome, battlefield psychology or the making of military history, and underrated vs.øoverrated generals?Spiller revisits his topic and his thinking, bringing fresh insight and a new context to an incomparable body of work. In the School of War further reveals the complex relationship between past and present in an understanding of the nature of war.


The Civilianization of War

The Civilianization of War

Author: Andrew Barros

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-08-09

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 1108429653

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Why are civilian populations targeted in modern wars despite laws and ethical claims insisting on civilian protections? This book offers answers.


The Deaths of Others

The Deaths of Others

Author: John Tirman

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-07-01

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0199831491

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Americans are greatly concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle--33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq--and rightly so. But why are we so indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those we fight and those we fight for? This is the compelling, largely unasked question John Tirman answers in The Deaths of Others. Between six and seven million people died in Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq alone, the majority of them civilians. And yet Americans devote little attention to these deaths. Other countries, however, do pay attention, and Tirman argues that if we want to understand why there is so much anti-Americanism around the world, the first place to look is how we conduct war. We understandably strive to protect our own troops, but our rules of engagement with the enemy are another matter. From atomic weapons and carpet bombing in World War II to napalm and daisy cutters in Vietnam and beyond, our weapons have killed large numbers of civilians and enemy soldiers. Americans, however, are mostly ignorant of these methods, believing that American wars are essentially just, necessary, and "good." Trenchant and passionate, The Deaths of Others forces readers to consider the tragic consequences of American military action not just for Americans, but especially for those we fight against.


Civilians at the Sharp End

Civilians at the Sharp End

Author: David A. Borys

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2021-02-18

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 0228006511

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Mitigating the destruction and chaos wrought upon the civilian populations of northwest Europe during the latter years of the Second World War became the focus of Civil Affairs, a little-known branch of the First Canadian Army. Comprising a motley collection of civilians-turned-soldiers – too old for combat yet too valuable to remain off the front lines – the members of Civil Affairs served as liaisons between Canadian combat forces and the civilians they encountered on the ground. Civilians at the Sharp Endfollows the story of the Civil Affairs branch through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany in 1944-45. David Borys highlights how Civil Affairs helped civilians caught in the jaws of war by delivering food and medicine, providing shelter for refugees and displaced persons, establishing law and order, dealing with resistance groups, and aiding in the reconstruction of infrastructure in damaged urban areas. Once in Germany the branch was further challenged as it transformed into a military government and became a force of occupation, rehabilitating a war-torn Germany and purging the state of its Nazi leadership, while at times having to protect German civilians from the recently liberated prisoners of the Nazi state. Borys demonstrates that while the Canadian Army was indeed concerned for the welfare of civilians, military operations took priority over civilian needs. Civil Affairs was forced to negotiate this complex terrain, assisting civilian populations while ensuring that they never impeded the work of the Canadian military and the ultimate defeat of Nazi Germany.


Collateral Damage

Collateral Damage

Author: Chris Hedges

Publisher: Bold Type Books

Published: 2009-02-10

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 0786743719

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Collateral Damage brings together testimony from the largest number of on the record, named, combat veterans who reveal the disturbing, daily reality of war and occupation in Iraq. Through their eyes, we learn how the mechanics of war lead to the abuse and frequent killing of innocents. They describe convoys of vehicles roaring down roads, smashing into cars, and hitting Iraqi civilians. They detail raids that leave families shot dead in the mayhem. And they describe a battlefield in which troops, untrained to distinguish between combatants and civilians, are authorized to shoot whenever they feel threatened.